McNamee wins
Three regulatory agencies could significantly reduce a planned increase in capital requirements for the largest banks, which would be a big victory for the banking lobby, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
JPMorgan Chase (New York Stock Exchange: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and other big bank CEOs played hardball and now the Federal Reserve, along with the FDIC and the Comptroller of the Currency, could reduce the plan for a mandatory 20% increase by about half, the Journal said, citing people familiar with The issue.
The capital increase is designed to ensure banks have a cushion to deal with potential losses. Banks argued it would cut into their profits and curb lending, the Journal said.
Dimon told other CEOs to surround the plan's main architect, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman of Banking Supervision Michael Barr, and talk to other officials, including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The three agencies are still negotiating and there is no guarantee of an agreement, and if reached, such an agreement could come by the end of this year, the newspaper said.
One “argument” in the negotiations is how banks account for capital markets activities, including trading positions, which would have an outside effect on JPM, Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of America ( BAC) and Citi (C). ), the Journal reported.
